Back to the HD-580 – For a While

My Audeze LCD-2 fell off my desk at work and got pranged so they’re going back to Audeze for repair and, incidentally, upgrade to the 2016 drivers. My home pair has these drivers and they are a subtle improvement over the 2014.

In the meantime, I’m listening to my trusty old HD-580s. Original 18 year old drivers, though I’ve replaced the headband and ear pads, and the cable, a few times over the years. They’re clean and play, fit and look like new.

First impression: these HD-580s are nice headphones! Smooth mids, nice timbres, well balanced. They really were the very first audiophile headphone, SOTA for 1999, a whole different league apart from Grados and the like. But compared to the Audeze:

The low bass is rolled off

The bass is not as tight

The mids are a tad boxy, not as open sounding

The high treble is rolled off

Overall, they sound a tad muffled and slow compared to the LCD-2. Conversely, the LCD-2 has:

Wider bandwidth: deeper bass, higher treble

Better detail & articulation throughout the range

More natural, realistic voicing

A gentle parametric EQ helps widen the HD-580’s apparent bandwidth:

+3 @ 25 Hz, Q=0.67

+3 @ 14 kHz, Q=1.5

I’m enjoying this trip down memory lane. I listened to these same HD-580s during most of the 10,000 hours I put into Octane Software back in the day. They sound nice, but I will be very happy to get my Audeze back.